Customer Reviews

Storm Constantine's Wraeththu Mythos 'Breeding Discontent'

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a fan-fiction novel, set in the Wraeththu world created by Storm Constantine, but written by two fans of hers.
I think this is a very good novel,expanding the history of the W. world with a very interesting and touching character, Lisia, only remaining hostling (wraeththu mother) in a "breeding farm"abandoned by the Varrs, a warlike Wraeththu tribe set in Megalithica, after their defeat by the hands of the superior Wraeththu tribe of the Gelaming. Their general Ashmael finds this abandoned facility, were slaves hostlings were conditioned to breed sons to the military, sons who would join the Varrish troops. Varrs were hermaphrodite, like all Wraeththu, but the Varrs imposed and coerced a strict separation of sex roles. Lisia, left alone to care for 182 wraeththu children, is fearful and resentful of the intervention of the Gelaming "Liberators", that he's ben taught to consider "the enemy". Lisia has the support of the new Governor of Megalithica, Lord Swift Parasiel, and of his hostling Cobweb (from Bewitchments of Love and Hate). There shall be a political confrontation between the Parsics (Varrs adopted new name)and the Gelaming over the future of Lisia and the children that will be resolved at Immanion, the Gelaming capital.
This book is notable for the character of Lisia,whose diary we read: her/his narration is tender and touching, yet chilling as he/she describes the exploitations, indoctrinations and lies of which he/she, her/his companions and the children (called harlings) are subjected from doctors and administrators of the breeding farm. At first naive and trusting, Lisia is led to discover the lies and the painfulness of his/her condition, her forced unfulfilled maternity. Some passages recalls the novel "Brave new World" of Aldous Huxhley for the chilling contrast between the blind trust of the indoctrinated and the unfeeling cruelty of the indoctrinators. Very good is also the depiction of Swift and Cobweb: their relathionship is examined in some very poignant scenes, where we feel both the undercurrent of tension between hostling and son and their reciprocal affection, when they should cope, in resolving Lisia's predicament,with unpleasant discoveries about their consort and father Terzian.
This is, in conclusion, a novel which stand comparison whit Storm Constantine's own novels, notably Bewitchments of Love and Hate and Wraiths of Will and Pleasure; Breeding Discontent shares whit those novels the uncanny similarities of the events depicted (set in an alternate reality), with events and issues of the very recent history of the world we live in. When I've been moved by Lisia's story, I was intrigued by those echoes between fantasy and reality

I can't add too much to the prior positive reviews, which summed up my feelings well on Breeding Discontent, except to say that it's a welcome addition to Storm's universe not only as a work of fan fiction, but taken in context with the overall Wraeththu mythos. The writing style is clean and engaging, the characters well-drawn, and the plot quite believable against the backdrop of Megalithica and its history.

My only caveat with the book is that the editing and proofreading could have been somewhat better, but since Immanion Press is a fledgling independent press, I'm more than willing to overlook the occasional omitted word. As for the unhelpful negative review that was posted, I'll take his six hours and use them to re-read this book again.

In short, Breeding Discontent is well-worth the effort for any Constantine or Wraeththu fan to pick up. Indeed, the quality of the writing and characterization has encouraged me to look into other works of Wraeththu fan-fiction, and to consider writing some of my own.

I heard about this novel, which apparently was first published as a fanfic on the 'net, through the Wraeththu fan grapevine. So I hunted it up on Amazon and ordered it despite the hefty cover price ($20 at the time I bought it; $30 if you buy it directly from Immanion Press). I read it on a four-hour train ride during a business trip; it was a short easy read. That irritated me, because when I pay $20 for a paperback I expect it to last longer than the express. But as I read the novel, I began to realize that the length wasn't the only disappointing thing about this book.

First a synopsis. The story is clearly aimed at existing Wraeththu fans rather than newbies, although a number of awkward infodumps have been woven in here and there to make it more newbie-friendly. "Breeding" takes place between books 2 and 3 of the original Wraeththu trilogy. In the land of the bloodthirsty warriors formerly known as the Varrs (now rechristened "the Parasiel" and trying to become a kinder, gentler tribe), an ugly experiment has taken place. The Varrs, in an effort to keep their armies strong, built breeding facilities where specially-trained, brainwashed hara were kept literally barefoot and pregnant for years. The story focuses on a breeder named Lisia who is thrust into a dire situation when the Varrs lose their war against the Gelaming, abandon the facility, and leave Lisia stuck with nearly two hundred Wraeththu children and no supplies. Lisia's a resourceful fellow, though, and with the aid of the older children he and they make do until a party of Gelaming soldiers discovers the facility at the start of the novel. The story then covers the next several months as the Gelaming and Parasiel try to unravel the history of the facility and decide the fate of the harlings and Lisia. Some of this unraveling occurs through the pages of Lisia's diary.

And that's pretty much it for the plot of the story. The central conflict is whether Lisia and the children will be permitted to remain in their home, or taken away by the Gelaming to be separated and "un-brainwashed" -- i.e., re-brainwashed to think like the Gelaming. There's very little actual tension surrounding this conflict. All the "good guys" want them to stay together; only one "bad guy" wants them separated, and his reasons aren't very plausible. So with the plot a foregone conclusion, the focus lies instead on the characters and how each deals with the changes.

The characters held my attention pretty well. I did grow to care what happened to Lisia, and I'm always glad to see Swift, my favorite character from Constantine's trilogy, though he was just a supporting character in this case. But although I tried my best to read this story as a kind of media tie-in for the Wraeththu universe (which was how I interpreted the cover design, which has a prominent "Wraeththu Mythos" logo above the title -- the start of a series?), I found it hard to accept this as a professional novel. It didn't have the same feel as, say, a Star Trek novel. It never stopped feeling like fanfiction. Specifically, I kept noticing certain flaws:

-Poor editing. There were more typos than I expect to see in a commercial work, and a lot of stylistic flaws (e.g., redundancies, overuse of the passive voice, unnecessarily long expositional paragraphs) which weakened the narrative and made the whole story feel bogged down/bloated in some places. This makes me wonder whether the story was even shorter in its original form, and the authors padded it with unnecessary filler to make it long enough to publish. The poor editing isn't the authors' fault, but it didn't help my overall impression.

-Shallowness. Aside from Lisia, none of the characters of the story were explored in any great depth. This made sense in the case of the "canonical" characters, since readers already know them (although I still would have liked to see their personalities explored further). But the original characters were also a bit on the flat side, and they're the ones who *needed* depth for the story to work. For example, one of the most interesting non-canon characters, a "chauvanistic" Gelaming commander who initially scorns Lisia as weak despite the obvious hardships Lisia has endured, suddenly becomes respectful at the end of the novel. What changes the commander's opinion? It's not clear. Assumably it has something to do with his more sympathetic lover talking sense into him, but although we witness several of these conversations, we never see the arguments sink in (in fact, they seem to make him dig in his heels even more). We don't get to share the moment of revelation when he suddenly begins to understand Lisia's strength, and his own limitations. He just starts acting nicer. It feels as though the authors either got tired of his grumping, or they recast his personality so the book would have a warm fuzzy ending.

-The "tell, don't show" style of the story. Many of the most (potentially) interesting events of the story occur off-camera and are discussed by the characters in passing, or described in the narrative after the fact. This is aside from the 40% or so of the story that takes place through Lisia's journal entries.

-I've already mentioned the lack of any real conflict or dramatic tension. There are few surprises in the plot (and those few are left unexplored for some reason -- sequel, maybe?); the characters don't grow or change much and when they do there's no real struggle involved; the ending is predictable practically from the beginning of the book. All this makes the story a little boring.

Now, I should be clear; these flaws weren't enough to stop me from reading the story. It kept me awake during a long train ride, which means it obviously wasn't *that* boring. I grew to like several of the original characters, and I wished they'd been given more depth because I wanted to get to know them better. I was glad to see familiar characters again, and of course the familiar world of Wraeththu. The story had little of the magnificent and artful prose, aesthetic eroticism, or power of Ms. Constantine's works, but to my own surprise that didn't bother me while I was reading -- possibly because my mind accepted the story as fanfic (i.e., authors playing around with familiar characters and concepts, but in their own way) and not true pastiche (i.e., a deliberate attempt to mimic the style and substance of another writer's work).

But BREEDING DISCONTENT isn't fanfic -- not anymore. Immanion Press is, I assume, a real honest-to-goodness publishing house. A real honest-to-goodness editor helped get the story ready for publication. And unlike fanfics which are available for free on the 'net or cheaply in homemade, xeroxed fanzines, this story exists as a high-quality trade paperback... with a premium price.

This last point was the clincher. How to judge this novel? Clearly the story is fanfiction; it was created in that spirit, and is best enjoyed in that spirit. But like it or not, a higher standard exists for commercial works than for fanfiction. What the average reader is willing to overlook in a free story becomes another matter altogether when that reader has to shell out a week's lunch money for the privilege. By the standards of fanfic this is a great story -- it passes the time nicely, it satisfies my urge to see familiar faces and places, it doesn't challenge my assumptions too much, it gives me a nice pleasant feeling at the end. But by the standards of commercial fiction it leaves me wanting in a major way. When I pay for a story I *want* to be challenged, and frightened, and amused, and entranced. I don't want a nice pleasant feeling at the end, I want to be weeping in anguish and/or joy. And in the case of a purposefully-derivative novel like this one, I want to feel at least a little of the same wonder and excitement that made me fall in love with the original series. Those are the standards by which Kevin Anderson's JEDI ACADEMY novels, Jean Lorrah's Sime/Gen novels (a series originally created by Jacqueline Lichtenberg), and all other "professional fanfics" are judged, so those are the standards I feel compelled to apply to BREEDING DISCONTENT.

So can I recommend it? If it were available on the 'net as a fanfic, definitely. As it is? No. This book costs as much as a hardcover written by an established author, and it's simply not good enough to justify that price.

So I'm giving my copy to my local library. Maybe others will do the same, and then you'll be able to read this fanfic in the usual way -- freely available to all, if better-packaged than most.

Reviews and reviewers are like the Spanish Inquisition for first-time authors. "Will they like it or hate it? What flaws are they going to find that I didn't? Am I going to want to drink a bottle of lye when they're finished?"

I think the authors are safe. I will note two things: there are some errors the proofreaders missed, and there are too many adverbs. That isn't reviewing; it's nitpicking. On to the review.

"Breeding Discontent" is part of Storm Constantine's Wraeththu Mythos, and it introduces us to Constantine's world after the Gelaming conquest of Megalithica. For fans of Wraeththu, it's set between "Bewitchments of Love and Hate" and "Fulfillments of Fate and Desire".

The setting is a facility hidden in northern Megalithica, and the main players are Paran (a Gelaming official), Swift (now Governor of Megalithica), and Lisia, a young har in charge of the place in the absence of its caretakers.

The place is a breeding facility, and Lisia is one of its star products--a hostling, one who has been taught that his highest purpose is to become pregnant and give birth, over and over, in order to keep the Varr war machine supplied with potential soldiers. Only the Varrs have lost to the Gelaming, and the Gelaming--Paran in particular--are horrified to discover the facility even exists. To Paran, Lisia is unnatural, not only because of his life's work, but also because he is "feminized," which to the hermaphroditic but "balanced" Gelaming is a perversion of Wraeththu.

The story pits Lisia, who has been abandoned by the facility's administrators to take care of himself, five peers, and all their collective offspring, and Swift against Paran and the Gelaming. There are misconceptions on both sides. The Gelaming see Lisia and his harlings as brainwashed victims at best and freaks of nature at worst. Lisia's view of the Gelaming is strained through a prism of growing bitterness as certain truths about his life and purpose are revealed to him. It takes Swift, as the all-too-partial third party, to step in and make certain that Lisia isn't exploited again, as well as to give Lisia the confidence he needs to decide what is best for himself and the little ones he considers his own.

The writing is clear and to the point, with the narrative switching from the discovery of the facility to Lisia's journal entries. The characters are well-drawn, from Lisia's naivete and empathy to Paran's discomfited, bureaucratic stiffness. The dialogue rings true as well--or as true as it can for this situation, which feels like an allegory for the exploitation of women and children in wartime.

It may be "mythos," but "Breeding Discontent" is a fine piece of work on its own. I recommend it for anyone who wants a closer look at the Wraeththu world beyond the major players in the trilogy.

Storm stumbled onto this story on the primary Wraeththu fan site and felt it was so in the spirit of her created realm that it deserved to be published proper. The stuff dreams are made of!

Ah well. I did really like it. It is the story of a very minor character who did not figure into the canon plot until the second book of the second trilogy, Lisia. Lisia was one of many secretly selected breeders kept in a facility to procreate with soldiers of a particularly vile Wraeththu tribe to keep their ranks replenished. The thing that makes this book stand apart from the rest, other than it was obviously not written by Storm, is that it deals with the question of the feminine aspect of Wraeththu head-on. The other books did not, and even later when Wraeththu began to understand more about themselves and the divergent other tribe that is originated from human females, there was still very much a masculine dominance. This book lacked Storm's established voice, but it was very well done, nonetheless. It fit into the mythos quite well. I must say that it is riddled with typos, which seemed to originate from poor typesetting rather than bad editing. Also, it is written as a plot in the present inset with flashbacks to Lisia's diary. There was one such inset that seemed out of place and affected the power punch climax the book was supposed to have. It didn't ruin it, it just really would have fit better in a different order. I was also reading it speed of light and didn't want to put it down, so it may well be that I missed some subtle tie-in that made its organization tight, as is.

I really enjoyed this book. It is an intriguing storyline which not only adds to the depth of Storm Constantines Wraeththu world, but which also deals with provocative gender issues and stereotypes, prejudice and cultural differences, geopolitics and bureaucratic stuffiness. A thoroughly delightful read!!!!!

"Breeding Discontent" is a stand-alone novel of Storm Constantine's Wraeththu Mythos written by Wendy Darling and Bridgette Parker (Storm Constantine, editor), with the storyline is set sometime between "Bewitchments of Love and Hate" and "Fulfillments of Fate and Desire" of the original Wraeththu trilogy.

The setting is a breeding facility, and the main character is Lisia. The storyline text alternates poignantly with excerpts from the diary Lisia has kept since he arrived as a child at the facility. Lisia is a hostling, who has been indoctrinated, and specially schooled, to believe that his highest purpose in life is to repeatedly become "pregnant" and give birth to an endless succession of harlings (wraeththtu children), that he will never know as his own, in order to keep his tribes' army (the fearsome Varr army) supplied with new soldiers.

However, Lisias' tribe, the Varrs, have lost the war with the Gelaming tribe. The Gelaming army is now moving through their newly conquered territories cataloguing (like all good bureaucrats!) the atrocities they find therein. The Gelaming army is horrified to discover the breeding facility, which has been abandoned by the Varrs, leaving Lisia alone to care for nearly two hundred Wraeththu children. The storyline deals with events that occur as the Gelaming liberators and Parasiel (the new name the Varrs friendly to the Gelaming administration have given themselves) try to figure out exactly what was happening at facility and decide the "best way" to help Lisia and the harlings. There are misconceptions on both sides: The Gelaming army sees Lisia as an unnatural throwback (and even to me his feminine "barefoot and pregnant" status did seem like something out of another time) and they view the harlings in his care as exploited, brainwashed experiments. Despite his growing bitterness at his lot, Lisia sees the Gelaming army as the enemy, a threat to all he has ever known, as well as to the harlings in his care.

My standard warning for the easily offended reader: Although there is not as much sex depicted in this book as in the others I've read there is some (between hermaphroditic beings)...sex is also discussed freely and dispassionately with regards to the Lisias' training, breeding, and childbirth.

I wanted to like this because I've been waiting for new Wraeththu books for sometime. I was ecstatic to see this book, then realized it was a Mythos Novel written by a fan. For the price I paid for it I felt ripped off. I hoped that if it was published by Immanion Press and had Storm's stamp of approval that it would most certainly be as good or close to the original cannon work. However its the product of two-first time authors writing in another authors world which strikes me as odd. Also as you read this you are very aware of when the authors switched chapters or took over certain areas for each other.

I found the story to be very clumsy and jarring. When the mood was set it suddenly went pear shaped then dissolved. The main character Lisia is a very shallow and one dimensional sketch. As the reader you do at first find yourself caring for he/she, but the plodding plot hacks away at those initial feelings. It was very hard to get through this story and the ending seemed tacked on.
This is fanfiction for the sake of fans and not something newbies should take on as a first look into the Wraeththu world. I'll steer clear of Mythos Books from now on and only get things by Storm herself.
Final notes or I guess me just being a quality freak, there are loads of misspelled words and talking in circles in this book. Its hard to recommend this to even the most steadfast Storm fan.

this book is really breath-taking! During my time as journalist I find it hard to have some time for reading! But I tokk three days off to finish tis exquisite book! It made my day for nearly two weeks! Wonderful plot and story-play and great follower of Storm Constantine's work of Wreahthu books.
Dark story in a dark future with a helpless little creature who is in the end stronger than everybody could imagine!

Very enjoyable read.

Very disapointed. Wendy Darling has no future as a writer. I think Storm made a mistake by letting her add her literary nonesense.